


Ding!

by honeylavendertea



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy, Academy Era, Chemistry, Competition, F/M, Love, Science, review games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 06:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4696214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeylavendertea/pseuds/honeylavendertea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma sighed exasperatedly, tugging at the sleeve of her sweater and focusing her eyes on the screen. </p>
<p>She could not let Leo Fitz win.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ding!

“Is everyone’s lab stations cleared?” Murmurs followed before Dr. Frank Hall continued, “Excellent, excellent! Now lets split the room right down the middle, shall we? Johnny, I’ll put you on the right side; Eileen, you’ll be with the left. Now, can everyone squeeze around the front-most lab tables on each side please.”

The divided Chemical Kinetics class looked wearily at their fellow classmates, unsure as to what their eccentric professor had in mind. The students were all on the edge with today being the final day of class before their midterm exams, and very few looked amused when their teacher placed a silver bell in the middle of each lab table.

“Okay, okay, what better way to prepare for your first exam of the year than a review game? Right?” Dr. Hall beamed at his class, “Now, you all will be The Atoms. You will be The Molecules.” He gestured.

After naming each group, the balding professor pushed his glasses farther up his nose and rushed to the front of the room where he pulled up a PowerPoint on the big screen. 

“Quite simple: first team to ding-in gets a chance to answer: if correct they get a point, if incorrect the opposing team has a chance to answer. The team with the most points at the end of the class wins.”

“What do we win?” A guy called from the back of The Molecules.

“The satisfaction of winning, Mr. Adams!” Half the class groaned, hoping for something a bit more tangible.

“Everyone ready? Lets Begin!”

Jemma Simmons placed herself directly in front of The Molecules’ silver bell. She loved trivia games, and considering she had begun preparing for her midterms two weeks prior, she was sure she would excel at this particular game. Looking around, she noticed only a handful of her classmates showed any indication of participating. Once discovering there was no prize for the winning team, most decided that their effort wasn’t worth it.

She flipped a few caramel curls over her shoulder and checked out the opposing team as Dr. Hall set up the projector: Her good friend Alice was a part of the Atoms, she smiled at Jemma once she noticed her gaze. Alice was brilliant, but Jemma knew this particular class wasn’t her strong suit. She supposed Matt Baker could prove to be some sort of competitor…

Just as Jemma became truly confident in her own team, she noticed the boy in the blue sweater: Leo Fitz was on The Atoms. This could turn out to be a very interesting game.

She didn’t know much about Leo Fitz, he hardly ever talked in class, in fact she only knew he was also from the U.K. when she walking in on him discussing one of his designs with one of their professors. She had introduced herself to him a year before after discovering they share many of the same courses, but the Scotsman had only mumbled a “hello” before turning away from her and burying his nose in their course textbook. This year had proved much of the same, she would run into him on campus and offer him a friendly wave and a smile, but Fitz would only turn away, pretending he hadn’t seen her. 

She knew both of them were two years younger than their classmates, this already put the two in a league of their own, but add in the fact that the pair constantly vied for the highest grade in every one of their classes added to need to one-up the other. She supposed that’s why he was so cold, she guessed he needed to distance himself from the competition and she knew that competition was her.

“Everyone ready? Lets Begin!”

Snapping her head back round, Simmons tapped the bell before even reading the question (In what sort of reaction would you find a Centrifugal Barrier?).

“Miss Simmons?” Dr. Hall announced.

“In a reaction, or in the reversal of a reaction that does not contain and electronic energy barrier.” She smiled confidently.

“That is correct!” Dr. Hall agreed warmly, pulling the answer up on the screen. 

Jemma’s Lab partner patted her on the shoulder and Johnny gave a high five while their professor place a tally on the right side of the board.

Simmons tapped the bell as soon as she could on the next question as well, but Alice had somehow beaten her to it, scoring the firt point for The Atoms. 

The game continued in similar fasion for the next handful of questions, Jemma even sat a few questions out in order to give her teammates a chance to score; Unfortunately, that lead to them answering incorrectly and The Atoms stealing their point. Though, in Benjamin’s defense, it was a tough question, and they eventually took one back from Alice.

Surprising, not just herself, but the rest of the class, Leo Fitz had spoken up and given the answers to a couple of questions, as well. Then he answered the latest question of the game correctly, pulling The Atoms ahead by one point.

Jemma sighed exasperatedly, tugging at the sleeve of her sweater and focusing her eyes on the screen. 

She could not let Leo Fitz win.

“Give the Michaelis-Menten Equation.” The Brit slammed on the bell; ignoring the sharp pain it caused to her hand.

“v = V[A]/(Km + [A])” She answered before Dr. Hall had known who had rang in.  
“Yes, well-done, Miss Simmons.” He tutted, adding to The Molecules score.

“How is a Molecular Beam formed?”

Jemma practically leaped on the bell again: the students next to her jumping at its volume. Unfortunately the bell on the left had dinged a split-second sooner.

“Mr. Fitz?”

“It’s produced by allowing a gas to expand through a small orifice, at high pressure, into a container at a lower pressure.” He said clearly but quickly, Jemma’s mouth dropped when he turned and directed a smug smirk in her direction.

“Correct!” Dr. Hall exclaimed, clearly overjoyed that at least two of his students were taking such in interest in his planned activity. 

“What is the Phase-Space Theory?”

Jemma had smashed the call bell once more; barely noticing that Johnny had reached over to tap it himself.

“A theory that is applied to either unimolecular or bimolecular reactions. The theory is used to predict the product energy distribution, the product velocity distributions, the product angular momentum distributions, and rates.” She recited, counting each prediction on her fingers.

“Yes, indeed.” Their professor nodded, looking a bit wary at the aggressive bell hitting.

Simmons managed to tie up the score with the next question, proud of herself she turned to see her teammates reactions to find most of them studying on their own, no longer bothering to feign attention.

“And next-“

Ding!

“Fitz?”

“A hypersurface.”

Next Question.

Ding!

“Simmons?”

“There is a one-to-one ration between the number of photons absorbed by a system and the number of excited species produced.”

Ding!

“Fitz.”

“It fails for laser beams or other lights of high intensity when the molecules can absorb more than just one photon.” He said in one breathe. 

Ding!

“Sim-“

“-The Pseudo Rate Constant!” Jemma interrupted her teacher, something she thought she’d do.

Ding!

“The distribution of available energy among the rotational, vibrational, and translation degrees of freedom in product molecules!” 

“At least I waited for him to speak”, Jemma thought to herself, “So rude.”

“Fitz-simmons, Fitz-simmons, Fitzsimmons…” Dr. Hall muttered aloud, “This will be our final question, our tie-breaker.” He announced.

“Who is your favorite Chemical Kinetics professor?”

Simmons ding! resembled more of a CLANG! as it flipped onto the cold, stone surface of the lab table due to sheer force. She barely registered Fitz’s bell being slammed when she shouted, 

“DR. HALL!” 

The room fell silent. And Simmons just noticed the blood dripping from her middle finger where she had slammed on the bell.

Dr. Hall cleared his throat, “Congrats, Miss Simmons, Team Molecules win. Now everyone study hard for your exam Monday, there will be no make-up and if you can’t be on time, you can’t take the test!” 

Jemma smiled to herself and sighed with relief. A few teammates patted her shoulder, but most had rushed out of the room following Dr. Hall’s announcement.

She slid on her jacket, hiked her backpack over her shoulders, and walked decidedly to the other side of the room. 

“Good game, Fitz!” She said kindly, “I really thought you had me there fore a while-“ 

“Uh yea,” he avoided her gaze, slipped his water bottle into the side compartment of his backpack. 

Contrary to what everyone seemed to think, Leo Fitz did not hate Jemma Simmons. She was his academic equal, sure, but she was well-liked, she was friendly, she was, well, really pretty. And for someone who had trouble just ordering coffee, he was more than intimidated by someone like her.

Fitz turned to leave, Jemma frowning in his wake. 

That’s it, she thought, if he is this determined to hate me I might as well let him.

“Fitzsimmons.” Dr. Hall called them to the front of the room where he stood at his podium, laptop open before him. The students looked at each other briefly before walking over to him, “You two are going to be Lab partners from now on.”

“What-“ Fits started, while Simmons asked “Why?”

“Consider it an experiment.” He shrugged, packing away his own school supplies, “See you both Monday.” He smiled a bit too happily at the two, who stood still surprised and confused as to the sudden partner change.


End file.
